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Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth behind the Myth of Shangri-la
For thousands of years, stories have been told about an inaccessible garden paradise hidden among the icy peaks and secluded valleys of the Himalayas. Called by some Shangri-la, this mythical kingdom, where the pure at heart live forever among jewel lakes, wish-fulfilling trees, and speaking stones, has fired the imagination of both actual explorers and mystical travelers to the inner realms. In this fascinating look behind the myth, Victoria LePage traces the links between this legendary Utopia and the mythologies of the world. Shambhala, LePage argues persuasively, is "real" and may be becoming more so as human beings as a species learn increasingly to perceive dimensions of reality that have been concealed for millennia.
- GenresNonfictionSpirituality
309 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
11 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Victoria LePage
5 books3 followersBiography: Victoria LePage (Alternate spelling: Victoria Le Page)
I was born in 1919 in Melbourne, Australia, at that time still a colonial, Anglo-Saxon, conservative country of only about 12 million people with a simple colonial culture. Raised in a fundamentalist Protestant sect, my first twenty-one years were unhappy. Although religious, I felt a spiritual alienation from the world of my peers and became agnostic. However at that time I had a spiritual experience that changed my outlook and the course of my life.
During this period I was shown my future spiritual Teacher. He was Indonesian and came to the West twenty years later to establish an esoteric school that taught a new type of syncretic spiritual practice. In 1961 I was able to join this Teacher and remained with him for many years. The training he gave was primarily Sufic and centred on an awakening of spiritual energy in the heart chakra.
From 1964 onward I visited Indonesia several times for fairly long periods, living in various villages in Java and becoming acquainted with some of its many occult sects and the religious beliefs its people have evolved from a creative synthesis of animism, Hindu-Buddhism, Sufism, Taoism, Christianity and Theosophy. (At that time, orthodox Islam was only just beginning to impose its fundamentalist regime on the population, which was then mostly mystical and pan-religious.)
For the past twenty years I have moved among a number of other spiritual paths and begun late in life what has developed into a literary career.
Victoria LePage
September 2007
I was born in 1919 in Melbourne, Australia, at that time still a colonial, Anglo-Saxon, conservative country of only about 12 million people with a simple colonial culture. Raised in a fundamentalist Protestant sect, my first twenty-one years were unhappy. Although religious, I felt a spiritual alienation from the world of my peers and became agnostic. However at that time I had a spiritual experience that changed my outlook and the course of my life.
During this period I was shown my future spiritual Teacher. He was Indonesian and came to the West twenty years later to establish an esoteric school that taught a new type of syncretic spiritual practice. In 1961 I was able to join this Teacher and remained with him for many years. The training he gave was primarily Sufic and centred on an awakening of spiritual energy in the heart chakra.
From 1964 onward I visited Indonesia several times for fairly long periods, living in various villages in Java and becoming acquainted with some of its many occult sects and the religious beliefs its people have evolved from a creative synthesis of animism, Hindu-Buddhism, Sufism, Taoism, Christianity and Theosophy. (At that time, orthodox Islam was only just beginning to impose its fundamentalist regime on the population, which was then mostly mystical and pan-religious.)
For the past twenty years I have moved among a number of other spiritual paths and begun late in life what has developed into a literary career.
Victoria LePage
September 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 23, 2018
Um, this has a lot more than 0 pages.
Something about the author's writing style makes me slog through it slowly and take frequent breaks to read other books. Part of it is no doubt the androcentric word choices and perspective.
Something about the author's writing style makes me slog through it slowly and take frequent breaks to read other books. Part of it is no doubt the androcentric word choices and perspective.
November 14, 2019
sebetulnua dari isinya banyak informasi bagus, tapi pemakaian kata-katanya dan kalimatnya terlalu panjang, sehingga sering membuat harus beberapa kali membaca ulang untuk mengerti.
January 13, 2015
The beginning is fine and interesting. Then suddenly we enter a black hole of fantasy and 'unconfirmed non-fiction', Ancient Greece is there, UFO, Native Americans and secret societies too. Often we shall see the author cutting out someones sentence out of context from some 400 pages book and sticking to it like there was nothing else in the world. Subject of Shambhala is extremely difficult and ambitious one, you can see that Mrs LePage tried hard but couldn't handle it too well.
December 23, 2016
Approximately the first half of the book was a great deal of fun, but when the author leaves off direct consideration of the Shambhala myth and then insists upon connecting Shambhala with as many legends, myths, and fringe theories as she can imagine, or cram into the book, Shambhala becomes tedious and strained.
Not a bad book, but too ambitious and slightly misguided.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
Not a bad book, but too ambitious and slightly misguided.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews